This invention relates to a rotation molded particulate copier/printer/duplicator machine collection bottle which is not prone to failure under vacuums required in the air circulation systems for copier/printer/duplicator machines.
In copier/printer/duplicator machines, a photoconductor film is commonly circulated past a primary charger, an imaging section, and a toner application section where a toner is applied to the image created in the imaging section. The photoconductor film is then passed into contact with paper or other transfer medium and the toner image is transferred to the paper, which is subsequently passed through a fuser system to fix the toner image to the receiver. In the operation of such machines it is common practice to withdraw the excess toner by a vacuum suction at selected locations in the machine, such as a brush cleaner used to recondition the photoconductor film after transfer of the toner image to the receiver before passing the film back to the primary charger. The air streams withdrawn are typically withdrawn from the machine by suction and passed to a cyclone separator where particulates are separated from the stream and passed to a particulates collection bottle. The gaseous stream is thereafter passed through a filter and to a blower.
The suction required is typically up to about 60 inches of water and it has been found that the commonly used blow molded parts of static dissipative extrusion polyethylene are prone to failure.
The blow molding process yields parts with high levels of molded-in stress and wide variations in wall thickness. The additives needed to provide static dissipation and flame retardant properties further reduce the mechanical properties of the base polyethylene resin. The result has been collection bottles that have cracked and allowed vacuum leaks while under the 35 to 50 inches of water vacuum load of the printer and copier cleaning systems. Alternative materials have been investigated for use in the blow molding process to produce more reliable bottles but none have been found.
Failures of the bottle by cracking or the like permits the reverse flow of the particulates, which may include toner, back upwardly into the cyclone separator and out of the cyclone separator with the gas. The blower prefilter is not designed to handle particulates in this quantity. As a result air contamination in the vicinity of the machine, and in the machine itself, can result. Such failures at a high frequency are unacceptable and a continuing search has been directed to the development of particulates collection bottles for use with copier/printer/duplicator machines, which are more reliable and are less prone to such failure.
According to the present invention, a more reliable collection bottle comprises a rotation molded particulates collection bottle for a copier/printer/duplicator machine comprising a rotation molded container having a top and a bottom, a wall thickness of at least about 0.20 inches and a particulates inlet.